Category Archives for Hotels.
Hyatt reached out to let me know that two hotels would move up in redemption category at 9:00 p.m. Central this evening, meaning that redemptions will cost more points.
I love that Hyatt is proactively sharing changes even when those changes affect just two properties. I don’t love that Hyatt is sharing that information only with me and not with all members, and that they’re sharing it the same day the change is going to go into effect.
IHG Rewards Club has been offering discounted hotel night redemptions for just 5000 points per night for more than a decade.
At the beginning there were some high value hotels included in the discount properties list. Over time there have been fewer and fewer premium hotels. The ‘good ones’ are almost always swept up and disappear from the list within a couple of days. These deals have been so good that in China people were automating PointBreaks bookings and reselling them.
Hyatt now counts free night awards towards elite status. But they’re doing more than that. They’re re-calculating 2017 status as though free nights counted last year, and they’re sending out emails to members who would have achieved a higher level of status or earned additional suites and points.
Five years ago a couple of commenters noted being asked to show their AAA card at hotel check-in when staying on a AAA rate. I have never seen this happen myself.
Later that year when AAA sent me a renewal notice with the card I asked readers whether I should just pocket that to show ‘just in case’ or actually pay for the membership, universally the sentiment was ‘you use the discount you pay for the membership.’
When Hyatt hired Mark Vondrasek – formerly of Starwood – as Senior Vice President for loyalty and business platforms it was announced he would circumvent the CMO and report directly to the CEO. At the time I noted how unique that was.
Though Hyatt tried to dissuade me of the significance that their head of loyalty wouldn’t report to the Chief Marketing Officer the handwriting seemed to be there.
Marriott had to take down their website and mobile app after Shanghai authorities were notified the hotel company listed Tibet and Taiwan as separate countries on a survey.
Then after a Marriott employee working the Marriott Rewards twitter account ‘liked’ a tweet by Friends of Tibet the company was letting everyone know that employee was being fired rather than the usual corporate response of not commenting on personnel matters.
A week ago Hyatt was pricing several hotels below their normal published cash and points award prices. Most of those deals are no longer available.
However several hotels are again charging less than they are ‘supposed to’ for cash and points.
When Austin tried to impose its own regulations on Uber, they learned that they were too small a market to matter. California and New York may be able to influence a company’s behavior, but Austin cannot. As regulation is increasingly global, the most important markets set the rules.
China is the next big thing. That was true 15 years ago, and it will be true 15 years from now. But for companies making a big bet in the country, Beijing is able to exercise global sway.
IHG Rewards Club has issued an update to its terms and conditions. And there’s only one change, repeated a few times in a few different ways. They want to make very sure you know that Taiwan is part of ‘Greater China’.
China’s civil aviation authority demanded a public apology from Delta and changes to its website for listing Tibet and Taiwan as countries.
A roundup of the most important stories of the day. I keep you up to date on the most interesting writings I find on other sites – the latest news and tips.
Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel -- a topic he has covered since 2002.
Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »
